Frankfurters, hot dogs, sausages or like articles are manufactured by forcing a homogenous fluid mass into an elongated casing. The length of the frankfurter or sausage is determined by twisting or tying off the casing periodically along its length creating individual frankfurters, sausages or linked products joined at intermediate joining segments.
It is then customary in the trade to feed long links of frankfurters or sausages into a machine that will automatically sever the links. The machine involved must be capable of avoiding jams and positioning successive frankfurters or sausages in the same position so that the severing mechanism which usually constitutes an automatic knife means, can sever the intermediate joining segments and remove the severed product. Applicant is the holder of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,646,637 and 3,659,316 for a link separator which has been used in the trade for many years. Applicant's patent directed itself to many of the problems associated with automatically positioning the sausage or frankfurter in position for the severing mechanism. Over the years, applicant has determined that additional improvements were required in order to prevent the bunching up of sausages and hot dogs and to ensure that the intermediate joining segment was positioned for the severing means and not a portion of the frankfurter, sausage or the like.
Applicant's invention comprises a feed chute positioned before the severing mechanism, the feed chute designed to accommodate the cross-sectional diameter of the linked material to be severed, the feed chute aiding and aligning the frankfurter or sausage and preventing the bunching up of the sausages as they approach the severing mechanism and insuring that the severing mechanism is aligned with the joining mechanism and that the linked product is not twisted from the path as a result of the operation of the severing mechanism.